Rest period restricts movement in rankings

Only two international matches have been taken into account for the new edition of the FIFA rankings, which is hardly surprising for the period immediately after the World Cup.

Consequently, virtually all of the moves of note – whether up or down the ranking – are due to points won in previous years dropping in value.

The US (18th, down 5) are the biggest victims as their four victories at the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2009, which were valuable in terms of points, have now been devalued.

Ukraine (24th, up 1) and Mexico (25th, down 1) traded places. Colombia (36th) and Bolivia (50th) may have only gained a few points, but that was still enough to see them both climb three places.

The only teams to jump more than three places were El Salvador (86th, up 4), Namibia (115th, up 4) and New Caledonia (154th, up 8).

National teams returned to action this week as more than 50 friendly matches took place between Tuesday and yesterday (22 involved teams that played in the World Cup). That means there will be more movement in the September ranking.

Malta improved its position by one place and is now ranked 151st.

Andorra (201) and San Marino (202) are still the only two fellow UEFA minnows lagging behind the Maltese national team in the rankings.

Meanwhile, three amendments have also been made to the confederation weightings used to determine the world rankings.

These weightings are based on results at the last three World Cups.

Following the finals in South Africa, matches over the next four years involving teams from South America, North, Central America and the Caribbean, and Africa will receive a slightly higher weighting: Europe 1.00, South America 1.00 (+0.02), North, Central America and the Caribbean 0.88 (+0.02), Africa 0.86 (+0.01), Asia and Oceania (both 0.85).

Top 20
1. Spain 1,883; 2. Netherlands 1,659; 3. Brazil 1,524; 4. Germany 1,464; 5. Argentina 1,288; 6. Uruguay 1,152; 7. England 1,125; 8. Portugal 1,062; 9. Egypt 1,053; 10. Chile 988; 11. Italy 982; 12. Greece 975; 13. Serbia 969; 14. Croatia 968; 15. Paraguay 961; 16. Russia 956; 17. Switzerland 940; 18. US 931; 19. Slovenia 917; 20. Australia 911.